INSIDE THE WORLD OF MEETUP

 2 years ago I did a  A FEW THOUGHTS ON MEETUP AFTER ONE YEAR (insidetheworldofmeetup.blogspot.com)  post so I thought it would be time to do a follow up. Obviously with covid lockdown all meetups were cancelled. As some restrictions were lifted I did 9 meetups during the second half of 2020 all of which were walks. This was of course due to the face that was about the only thing that you could do. I was never a big group walker prior to this but enjoyed most of the walks I went on.  I managed 20 meet ups after March in 2021, again three quarters of which were walks. I'd expected with the pubs reopening as normal I'd go back to my old habits but that didn't happen. I'd go on a few drinking days with meetup but drastically reduced the amount I drank in my own village on Saturday nights. A lot of the time I was tired from walking all day and the local drinking scene has gone downhill so much I want to be less of a part of it than ever. Covid gave me some good habits......

It's one year ago today since I first signed up and at the time of writing this I have attended 17 meetups with varying degrees of "success". The following is a summery of my first years meetup experience. 1) It's made a big difference to my social life. Before joining I spent 90% of my weekend nights sitting in the same 3 or 4 village pubs, wishing that this was the night someone wanted to go out and do something different. Now I have a calendar full of events often having to choose between multiple events on the same day. 2) If you life outside a big city be prepared to travel . The nearest meetup to date from my home was around 10 miles and required a change of buses. I constantly have to use infrequent night buses where possible to get home from Leicester, Derby and Nottingham to keep the costs down. 3) You need to attend at least a dozen meetups across different groups and different types of events to get a proper feel of it. There is a big variation b...